CyberErik's Success Thread- just starting out, feedback and help welcome!

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Congrats, Erik! It's awesome down there. I went down there last year for the Sweet 16/Elite 8 and did 1 spring training game. Graphing trips are great fun. I'm going on a couple this year (Iowa/college bball and Philly/college lax). Enjoy yours and good luck on it!

Hey, sorry it took me so long to get back to this Ryan. I live in a 1 BR apartment in center city. My old 1 BR had floor to ceiling book shelves that lined an entire wall, so that whole wall was my display wall. I had framed graphs floor to ceiling.

Now though this 1 BR is bigger but has almost no storage space. I have a little wooden box with cubby holes big enough for baseball cubes, and it fits about 15 balls. I got it at a yard sale for 3 bucks haha. I have those on display, but otherwise I have all my framed sigs in boxes in our storage closet waiting for the time when I have a "man cave."

So I don't have any really nice photos of a giant display case, but I can show you framed stuff or that baseball box thing. Nothing elaborate.

Honestly, my best day-to-day graphs are in binders to stay out of the light with sleeves and heavy cardboard backing to prevent bending- i.e. my "four aces" SI cover and my kobe SI cover.

Finally got out and graphed today. There's a bit of back story here so I'll provide the whole thing (I know y'all love hearing stories).

I was going out to dinner last night in New Jersey and I was in the car running the radio stations, and I settled on Temple University Radio Station, and lo and behold, the radio DJ mentioned that WILL SMITH,

Anyways I knew when I got home that I had to do the research. I googled "Will Smith Philadelphia" in the past week. No matches. I googled "Will Smith Appearance Philadelphia" in the last week and BOOM- linked me to temple's performing arts center page where Will Smith indeed would be appearing as part of a book tour with "Sista Soulja" ... ok...

So I did some research on google street view and saw that there were 2 entrances to the venue, both were accessible on public streets (i.e. no protected VIP entrance). I knew my chances were good.

I got there 2 hours early, and checked the front door and the back door. The back door was set in an alley, and in the alley was parked a black escalade and the door was guarded by a guy in a trench coat. Yeah, I knew I was in the right spot. I asked the cops and security guard if I could get a graph when he gets here, they essentially told me to f*ck off. However as I waited around I broke the ice with them and they were decent guys, and told me he wasn't in yet.

About a half hour later an escalade pulled in, and I got all ready. However it was just Sista Souljah. A few minutes later a BMW with "WS-1" on the vanity plates pulled in, and it was his parents.

Shortly thereafter, the security guards all went inside and he said to the other guy "I gave it to him... he's inside already." And they went inside the venue, leaving me all alone. I got panicked and thought he came in the front door. I asked a guy nearby if he was in already, and he said he didn't think so.

So my fears were NOT realized though, as the guards came out about 5 minutes later. Just then a gold SUV pulled down the alley way. A woman got out of the passenger side, and Will got out of the other side. He came over and greeted the crowd with a trademark "wassup wassup."

I was the first one in line and asked him for a graph, and he was happy to sign. After that 5-6 people crowded in to get their pictures with him. A group of kids and an adult presented him with a custom made chess board on behalf of their chess club, and he accepted it graciously. He was really cool, as I expected, and hung out outside for a few minutes before going in.